Few CEOs can boast of being poached by their former protégés, but that is exactly what happened to William Landes. The 55-year-old former CEO of Boston-based 2100 Capital Group, a diversified alternative investments company formed by Old Mutual Asset Management, was lured away last month by two former employees. He’s now with Lausanne, Switzerland–based Gottex Fund Management, a $16 billion fund of hedge funds. The pair are Kevin Maloney, head of manager research at Gottex, who went to work for Landes in 1995 at Putnam Investments, and Richard Leibovitch, who runs Gottex’s North American business and joined Putnam in 1999. Landes, who headed Putnam’s alternative assets initiative, is no longer the boss. He will become a member of the executive management and asset allocation committees, working out of the Boston office. “We’re working elbow to elbow now, as partners.” The three will vet talent for the firm’s diversified funds of hedge funds. Landes prefers to invest with those who understand the pressures of major seismic events, such as the Russian debt default in 1998 or the Mexican peso dislocation in 1994. “Neither of those events rivals the depth of the crisis that is going on today, but you’ve got to find managers who have very strong risk management capabilities,” he says.
